EMI investors reject buyout bid
Terra Firma Capital Partners' £2.4 billion offer for EMI Group was rejected by shareholders, indicating that investors are holding out for a higher bid.

Baidu has formed a partnership with a Chinese-language record label
The partnership with the record label Rock Music Group will provide an online music streaming service.

Europeans worry about Google's takeover of DoubleClick
Europe's major consumer group BEUC says it fears that Google's takeover of the online ad tracker DoubleClick will damage EU privacy rights and limit consumers' choice of Web content.

China says RIM can sell BlackBerries there
The company says it plans to serve corporate customers in key cities including Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou.

Dell plans retail sales in Asia
The company began retail sales in North America last month, breaking with its direct-sales practice.

Crowd's wisdom helps South Korean search engine beat Google and Yahoo
Naver, which dominates Korean-language Internet search, has built a database of user-supplied information with its interactive Q&A service.

Niche search engines emerge in the shadow of Google
There is no shortage of search engine options to Google in spite of its overwhelming dominance.

Research in Motion receives clearance to sell BlackBerry devices in China
Research in Motion has received clearance to sell its popular BlackBerry device in China after eight years of trying. The Canadian-based company says it is finalizing the delivery of its products there.

iPhone-free cellphone news
T-Mobile had the misfortune to announce a new product last week that may be as game-changing as Apple's.

Help File: Q&A for a digital world
When your optical mouse cursor goes haywire and skips all over the place, what can you do?

Gadgets of the Week: Quickcam Pro 9000 Webcam
The Quickcam Pro 9000 Webcam from Logitech adds Carl Zeiss lenses for better image quality; Canon's new Selphy CP740 miniature printer is designed to be carried along for quick photo prints in far-off places and cramped spaces.

Until recently, it was a crime to produce and distribute overly detailed maps of Russia. Now they are available online.

Google on Thursday introduced its Russia Map service, showing locations and providing directions to places or businesses across the country, including cities that were once closed.

"The Google map services is a very convenient service that allows quick and easy access to local cartographic information," said Vladimir Dolgov, head of Google Russia. "It works with the Russian language via any Internet connection method."

The Russian language capability is one the biggest selling points for the new site.

The Yandex.ru portal, which is Google's main competition in Russia, already offers a map service. Analysts said the Google service could squeeze out its local competitor.

But Yandex's editor in chief, Yelena Kolmanovskaya, said the company had started expanding its services in major Russian cities. "There is no pressure on us from Google, as far as map services are concerned," Kolmanovskaya said. "But the fact that their portal now works in Russian might change the situation."

Axel Springer, the biggest European newspaper publisher, said Thursday that it had dropped a plan for a tabloid newspaper in France, saying an expansion of its Internet activities in the country was more attractive.

Springer, based in Berlin, said it hoped to increase its presence in France by expanding its Internet business. Springer bought a stake last week in the Web publisher AuFeminin.com, the largest European producer of Web portals for women, and said that it could buy more French Internet companies.

Alcatel-Lucent, the largest supplier of telecommunications equipment, won an order from Synterra, a Russian telecommunications company, to supply equipment for wireless broadband networks based on the WiMax technology.

Synterra, based in Moscow, plans partnerships with regional operators to provide WiMax services in more than 1,000 Russian cities and towns by the end of 2008, Alcatel-Lucent said. No financial details were disclosed.

Russia's first regional WiMax networks should be ready in the fourth quarter of 2007.

Research In Motion shares rose after The Globe and Mail in Toronto reported that the company had won permission to sell its BlackBerry e-mail phones in China, the biggest mobile phone market.

The company could sell its phones in Chinese shops by the end of next month, the newspaper said Wednesday, citing a manager at Research In Motion's office in Beijing. Katie Lee, a spokeswoman for the company, declined to confirm that the company had obtained a permit. In afternoon trading in New York, the shares were up $4.49 at $212.43.

Bruce Wasserstein, chairman of the investment bank Lazard, agreed to sell American Lawyer magazine and the rest of his legal and real estate publishing business to Incisive Media of Britain for $630 million.

The cash acquisition of American Lawyer Media Holdings is expected to be completed in the third quarter. American Lawyer Media publishes 33 U.S. national and regional magazines and newspapers, including The National Law Journal.

The German commercial television broadcaster ProSiebenSat.1 said it would buy PULS TV of Austria from a group of private investors.

The parties had agreed not to disclose financial details of the transaction, which depends on regulatory approval, ProSieben said. Last week, ProSieben bought a rival, SBS Broadcasting, for €3.3 billion, or $4.49 billion, to create one of the biggest European television providers.

Fujitsu, the biggest Japanese computer-services provider, said in a statement filed with the Tokyo Stock Exchange that French financial regulators had imposed an Aug. 8 deadline for its bid to take over GFI Informatique.

The board of GFI, an information technology consultant in Paris, unanimously rejected Fujitsu's bid of €8.50 a share June 20.